This series introduces, in words and music, the plot and background of major operas. Using the principal themes and arias, taken from the Naxos recording of the complete work, Thomson Smillie is informative yet entertaining, enabling the listener to get more from this remarkable art form. Fidelio is a work like no other. Beethoven's only opera is about the joy of married love - by a man who never knew that pleasure. It is about heroism by a man who was often mean and petty in his human relations; it is about freedom by a man who was a prisoner of his own deafness; and ultimately it is about joy by a man who experienced precious little of it. Maybe there is a divine logic to that: feelings the artist could not experience but could express find their noblest manifestation in music of overwhelming power and majesty.
Also available as compact disc; previously issued as HNH International NAXOS 8.558077.
System details (note)
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
System requirements: MS Windows 98SE, or 2000, or XP; MS Internet Explorer 6.0, Mozilla 1.7.1, FireFox 1PR, Netscape 7.1, or Opera 7.53; and Media Player 9 or 10.
System requirements: Macintosh: Mac OS X 10.2.8 or 10.3.5; MS Internet Explorer 5.2, Mozilla 1.7, Netscape 7.1, Opera 7.53, or Safari 1.0; Media Player 9.0. Or, Mac OS 8.6 / 9.0; MS Internet Explorer 5.1; Windows Media Player 7.1.
Language (note)
Narrated in English; opera excerpts sung in German.